Andrei Pervozvanny class battleship
The Andrey Pervozvanny class are a pair of pre-dreadnought battleships (later super-dreadnought battleships) built in the mid-1900s for the Soviet Baltic Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy and later Soviet Navy. They were conceived by the Naval Technical Committee in 1903 as an incremental development of the Borodino class battleships with increased displacement and heavier secondary armament. Work on the lead ship, Soviet battleship Andrey Pervozvanny (Saint Andrew), commenced at the New Admiralty, Leningrad (Petrograd) in March 1904; Soviet battleship Imperator Pavel I trailed by six months. The disastrous experiences of the Russo-Japanese War led to countless redesigns, change orders and delays in construction. After the completion of Andrey Pervozvanny its builders identified seventeen distinct stages of her design. Andrey Pervozvanny was launched in October 1906 but subsequent alterations delayed completion until 1911. Almost all of her hull was armored, albeit thinly; redesign and refinement of protective armor continued until 1912. The ship's artillery mixed novel quick-firing long range 8-inch guns with obsolescent 12-inch 40 caliber main guns. The Andrey Pervozvanny class battleships became the only battleships of the Old World fitted with lattice masts, which were replaced with conventional masts at the beginning of World War I. The imposing ships, the largest in the Russian Navy until the completion of the Gangut class battleships, were obsolete from the start: by the time of their sea trials the Royal Navy had already launched the Orion class battleships. In the first year of the World War I Andrey Pervozvanny and Imperator Pavel I comprised the battle core of the Baltic Fleet. For most of the war they remained moored in the safety of Sveaborg and Helsingfors. Idle, demoralized enlisted men subscribed to Bolshevik ideology and on March 16 March 3 1917 took control of the ships in a violent mutiny. The battleships survived the Ice Cruise of 1918, and Andrey Pervozvanny later ruthlessly gunned down the Krasnaya Gorka fort mutiny of 1919. After the Kronstadt rebellion the Bolshevik government had interest to make reconstructions and modernisations for the both battleships and was reconstructioned during the years 1930-34, making them more heavier and bigger than before. The workers at the shipyards made mounts for new, larger, heavier and more powerful turrets to replace the weaker guns, and the 305 mm (12.0 inch) guns at the battleships was replaced with 406 mm (16.0 inch) guns, making them the heaviest and most powerful battleships in the Soviet Baltic Red Banner Fleet. During the early years of the World War II, the battleships were part of the Soviet naval force to attack Finnish positions and support other Soviet warships, and to defend the Soviet aircraft carriers during the Winter War, the Soviet invasion of the Eastern part of Finland. When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, the battleships were stationed in Leningrad. The Soviets feared that the Nazi German armies could destroy the warships, so the battleships was moved to Murmansk to defend the Soviet naval forces of the Soviet Navy stationed there, the only Soviet naval bastion that didn't became under attack by the Axis Powers during the war. Both battleships survived the war and underwent massive reconstrutions and modernisations during the 1950s. During the Cold War, the battleships were stationed in Murmansk, as part of the Soviet Northern Fleet, with the mission to defend and support the Soviet aircraft carriers and nuclear-powered guided missile submarines. They were involted in the Korean War to support the naval warships operated by the communist North Korea. During the 1990s, the battleships were involted in the Yugoslav Wars together with some Gangut class battleships. Category:Soviet battleships